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Sunday Blog: eggs, equinoxes & white hoodies

Today is Easter Sunday – or ‘Resurrection Sunday’. It is also the day Hitler was born. Luckily Easter is a moveable feast, so the two dates rarely coincide. Apparently the First Council of Nicaea established the date of Easter as the first Sunday after the Paschal Full Moon following the March equinox, which ‘ecclesiastically’ is reckoned to be on 21 March – whatever all that means. It is the culmination of the Passion of Christ, preceded by Lent, a forty-day period of fasting, prayer and penance. And, by the way, The Queen is 88 tomorrow. That might be the reason she has two birthdays – one in June, too – so she can officially celebrate as far apart from Adolf as possible. Just sayin’.

A lot has happened this week. There was a ferry tragedy in South Korea, with 242 still missing. Gabriel Garcia Marquez died. A ‘deal’ was reached to ‘ease tension’ in East Ukraine. Kate suggested William should get an ‘alpaca toupee’. The Oscar Pistorius trial was adjourned with a key defense witness in doubt. Gareth Bale scored a ‘wonder goal’ for Real Madrid to defeat Barcelona in the Copa del Rey. The Co-Op group lost £2.5bn. Flight MH370 is still missing. Chelsea Clinton announced that she’s pregnant. And now some of us are celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, just three days after his crucifixion.

David Cameron, supposedly stung by a jellyfish whilst on holiday in Lanzarote (with many people offering to pee on the sting), has said something about us all needing to restore the Christian faith to its proper place at the ‘heart of our communities’. I also read a report that China is on course to become the world’s most Christian nation within 15 years – with more churchgoers than America. It’s clearly a big business.

But tell me, please – what do yellow and turquoise fluffy bunnies and chocolate eggs have to do with the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Paschal Full Moons, or March Ecclesiastical Equinoxes? Actually, I think I’d probably appreciate Easter here in Spain much more if I could get hold of some better Easter eggs … and if it wasn’t for the Ku Klux Klan hoodies. Okay, I know that they’re not really Ku Klux ‘Klanners’ – but why dress like that, then? It’s a bit confusing for the innocent visitor. Apparently the origins of the pointy hat in Spanish tradition are unknown – and the face is covered simply as a sign of mourning for the death of Christ. So … wear a different hat, then, and not a white, pointy one! Then cover your face with something else – not a hood with holes cut out for the eyes. It’s rather an unfortunate mix of imagery, don’t you think? It’s like mixing Easter with Hitler.